wonder how much of that was US foreign aid
Posted on 06/18/2019 9:26:28 PM PDT by luv2ski
ENTEBBE, Uganda—The government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is selling off his country’s gold reserves. Some of it has passed through a secretive operation in East Africa, a gambit that evades U.S. sanctions.
On two early-March flights, at least 7.4 tons of gold with a market value over $300 million moved from Venezuela to a refinery in Uganda, say officials in Venezuela and Uganda, a foreign diplomat and Venezuelan opposition lawmakers, who have concluded Mr. Maduro’s government exported the ingots.
The gold arrived on a Russian charter jetliner in two shipments at the international airport in Entebbe, says Ugandan national-police spokesman Fred Enanga. The accompanying paperwork identified the ingots, some with stamped labels partially scratched off, as Venezuelan central-bank property, says a senior Ugandan police officer who saw the bars and documents. Flight records show the trips originated in Caracas, Venezuela.
The shipments expose one link in a global underground economy many suspect is helping Mr. Maduro cling to power by bypassing the U.S.-dominated international finance system. Washington has recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate president, slapped financial and other sanctions on Venezuelan officials and institutions, and threatened penalties for others doing business with the regime.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
I hear Shirley Bassey singing “Goldfinger”
“He loves Gold!”
Only gold,
He loves gold!
Maduro won this round. The gold went to Entebbe, then on to the Mid-east to the buyers. He won this round. Too bad we couldn’t have intercepted it somehow. Perhaps our deep state isn’t yet on board with Trump’s policies.
Wow, how silly can you be?
Two minutes with a propane torch, available at any Walmart or hardware store anywhere in the world and any markings on a gold bar would be completely gone.
But, if you’re surprised by the authorities you use what ever is at hand. Even then a heavy blunt instrument would be better than any scratching or cutting implement to remove identifying markings on gold.
Interesting how this gold could sit in the Venezuelan Treasury for 75 years until a Socialist government comes to power.
Socialism arises in a country rich in natural resources, a country much more wealthy than its neighbors, and within a decade this new Socialist government has so impoverished its people that they are reduced to eating their pets and rats. And finally the Socialist dictator is selling off the countries gold reserves to keep his army fed.
Hillary helped Clinton Foundation donors profit off Congo
Hillary Clinton's seeming refusal to take on corruption in African countries if the political status quo benefited foundation donors is evidence of the former secretary of state's favorable treatment of friends, author Peter Schweizer alleged in his new book, Clinton Cash. As an example, Schweizer highlights a 2006 law NY Sen Clinton supported that would have cracked down on the Democratic Republic of the Congo's illicit mineral trade — if she enforced it as secretary of state three years later. Instead, Clinton's "actions during her tenure as secretary of state came nowhere near the positions she had taken while in the U.S. Senate," Schweizer wrote.
The Congo's corrupt trade of minerals such as copper and cobalt funds rebel groups that perpetuate the violence keeping the country in tatters. Unrest in the region allows some companies to take advantage of the situation and negotiate lower prices for mining rights. "This kind of business could be enormously profitable if you were willing to look the other way on corruption and human rights," Schweizer wrote.
<><> The head of a Canadian-based company with an enormous stake in the Congo's mining and oil announced a $100 million donation to the Clinton Foundation through his charity on the heels of Clinton's first presidential campaign, the Schweizer book noted. Lukas Lundin, a Swedish investor whose family had founded the Lundin Group, also personally gave between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation prior to 2013, donor records show. Lundin's lucrative mining operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were threatened by the piece of legislation Clinton herself had cosponsored in 2006.
The Congo Relief, Security and Democracy Promotion Act would have upended the Congolese leadership that allowed Lundin to mine in the country unhindered, Schweizer wrote. When the struggling Congolese government attempted in 2008 to reclaim control over parts of the mine that holds the world's largest deposits of copper and cobalt, Lundin Mining reportedly resisted. The company claimed allowing the government a larger share in the mine would make the project "economically unfeasible," the Globe and Mail reported in 2008. At the time, Lundin owned a 24.75 percent stake in the mine and another company, Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold, owned 57.5 percent, leaving the Congolese government in control of 17.5 percent of the mine.
<><> Freeport is also a major Clinton Foundation donor, giving between $250,000 and $500,000, according to donor records. The Congolese government saw its stake in the mine climb by just 2.5 percent in 2010 after talks that were thought to have been conducted by the State Department "in support of Freeport," the Financial Times reported that year. Clinton's agency allegedly intervened in another dispute between a mining company and the Congo's government in 2009, Schweizer noted.
<><> First Quantum Minerals, another Canadian mining corporation, was locked in a dispute with the Congolese government after winning the rights to a profitable mine using "questionable methods," the author wrote, alleging the firm bribed officials in the country to get the contract. Clinton's State Department intervened after the Congolese government stripped First Quantum of its business license, ensuring the company was paid $1.25 billion for its assets in the country, according to the Schweizer book.
First Quantum's founder, Jean-Raymond Boulle, has had controversial ties to the Clintons for decades. In 1998, he dropped all business with the Congo's existing regime and began heavily bribing the incoming dictator, Laurent Kabila, in an apparent attempt to secure valuable mining property before the country's leadership changed hands, Forbes reported that year. The U.S. still backed the Congo's existing leader at the time. The report suggested Boulle's ties to Clinton helped him seal the remunerative deal. "Did Boulle have advance knowledge that the U.S. was about to change sides, sealing the fate of the old dictatorship?" the Forbes report said. "We don't know; Boulle denies he had any help from the U.S. government. But we do know that Jean Boulle has interesting Clinton Administration connections."
SOURCE--https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/clinton-helped-companies-that-donated-to-foundation-profit-off-africa
August 1,
I’ll get back.
wonder how much of that was US foreign aid
Gold is getting pretty close to that ‘magic’ $1,350.00/oz. many of us have been waiting for, so SOMETHNG has to happen to screw THAT up, you know! ;) ($1,342.50 right now!)
Gold normally goes into the Summer Doldrums. This summer may be worse than normal. :(
Admitting I’m an idiot - what is “magic” about $1,350/oz.?????
At $15 an ounce silver is still a bargain. And it would be far easier to trade ounces of silver in a SHTF situation than gold would be. Back when the Feds confiscated gold they left silver alone.
Just a thought.
L
Probably be stacked next to all that Aztec gold that disappeared from Spain in the 1930s.
Gold bars are assayed and authenticated and go in a vault, ordinarily they don’t move much, if ever, for the reasons described. The paperwork only changes hands. Once it physically leaves a “registered facility” or whatever, the chain of custody is unknown, it causes problems because it is no longer is guaranteed in a sense, the buyer will want another assay. Big bars have been known to counterfeiting. Since assay and casting into .999 bars costs money, the price paid is discounted.
Same thing with melting a bar down or scratching off serial numbers. Now what? If someone goes to sell an unrecognizeable blob they melted down in a furnace they will take a hit on the price paid. Sure, “it’s gold” but it will need to be sent off for assay and casting into another coin or bar, and eventually back in a registered vault somewhere.
The US origin bars are “coin melt”, literally melted down from US coinage and are 90% pure alloyed with copper. Pure gold is too soft to be used as coinage.
Won’t be the first time the Venezuelans get skrewed by a socialist regime.
All that gold from Venezuela’s
in a bank in downtown Istanbul
in Erdogan’s family’s name.
So if you’re thinking about Venezuela,
it don’t matter how many Bolivars you got,
toilet paper’s the road to fame.
He’s dead, Jim.
Pretty sure it is not lost
(My British accent is not as good as it used to be)
$1,350.00 is the top of the market for gold.
Well, it WAS! Today it’s at $1,382.70, but there will be a big sell-off as people cash in on this high price.
Mama LIKE! :)
Yep. The last thing I’ll ever cash in is my ‘junk silver’ which is loose coins from 1964 and earlier. You know, back when there was actual SILVER in our currency? *Rolleyes*
I’ve got a plan, Stan! ;)
No way $1,350 is top, or anywhere near it.
With right circumstances, it will again push toward $2k..........
“You know, back when there was actual SILVER in our currency? *Rolleyes*
Yep. We have a (very) small pile along with some 1 oz rounds we’ve managed to accumulate over the years.
“I’ve got a plan, Stan! ;)”
Just remember that no plan survives first contact with the enemy.
Semper Fi.
L
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.